Focus: Beyond Basketball, There Is ... Howard's End

White's Tale Is Full Of Heart And Sole

Basketball was never an obsession for Howard White. The game didn't use him, consume his dreams, or narrow his vision.

Rather, White used the game, from the Hampton playgrounds to Kecoughtan High to the University of Maryland. Basketball was his ticket to discipline, a college education, and career opportunities.

So when his crumbling knees derailed his pro basketball career before it ever began, White did not blink. It was time to move on and explore life.

Little did he know that he would, dressed in suit and tie, become one of the most influential figures in the odd and lucrative marriage between the National Basketball Association and Nike, the shoe manufacturing kingpin.

Little did he know he would become a business partner of the world's most visible retired athlete.

``Basketball to me has always been a means to an end,'' White said. ``I don't know exactly what end. Whatever the good Lord throws out there.''

Nike chairman Phil Knight says any power his company wields in sports is based on its relationships with the athletes and coaches who endorse and wear Nike products. And since 1984, White has nurtured Nike's most vital connection - that with Michael Jordan.

After working as an assistant coach for Lefty Driesell at Maryland, White joined Nike 12 years ago as a field representative responsible for keeping Nike's Eastern NBA clients supplied with shoes and other apparel.

When Jordan entered the league with the Chicago Bulls, White's job changed drastically. Air Jordan became Nike's signature line, with sales of approximately $200 million annually, and Michael Jordan became a superstar.

Two years ago, Nike promoted White and moved him to company headquarters in Beaverton, Ore., from where he coordinated Nike's entire NBA operation.

In the aftermath of Jordan's stunning October retirement from the NBA, Nike has asked White to leave NBA operations and focus solely on Jordan's new business ventures, which have not been made public.

White's business acumen does not surprise those who first encountered him during the 1960s in Hampton.

``He was not only a great player, but he also had tremendous charisma,'' said Jim Hathaway, White's coach at Kecoughtan. ``He was president of the senior class. The kids just loved him. The faculty loved him. He was a great, great role model.''

Boo Williams, who now runs a local summer basketball league, grew up listening to tales about White.

``He was a playground legend,'' Williams said. ``He was all we heard about. I used to go watch him play behind Moton Elementary. He's moved up the ladder quickly. He does a great job of talking to kids, relating to kids, and the pro players like him. He's good for the game.''

When White starred at Kecoughtan from 1966-69 and at Maryland from 1970-72, the brand of shoes an athlete wore was not a concern, curiosity or issue. But when Knight, a former college miler, founded Nike in 1972, he slowly began courting athletes and coaches.

Today, Nike's annual sales exceed $3 billion, and company headquarters is a 74-acre World Campus devoted to fitness. Shoe companies compete relentlessly for the endorsements of top stars, and Nike does not lose many it pursues.

``Marketing has made a lot of athletes bigger than life,'' White said.

White also acknowledged that athletes have replaced parents as role models. Kids covet Air Jordans or other brands of shoes endorsed by famous jocks. Some murders have been attributed to arguments over shoes and team jackets.

``When we were coming up, in a lot of neighborhoods you had people who cared about you,'' White said. ``Not necessarily your parents. Maybe the mailman, the bus driver, asking how you did in school today. Someone who just cared, even if you weren't from a two-parent household.

``We have gotten away from that now that we have kids having babies. When you look at that, these may not be great times. But to say it's shoe companies and marketing glamorizing athletes, hell, that's not the issue. The real issue is in the home.''

White and his wife, Donna, have a 5-year-old daughter, Mandi. Barkley, the Phoenix Suns' superstar forward, also is a family man, and he recently made two unique commercials for Nike.

The first shows Barkley disdaining his status as a role model and shifting that responsibility to parents. The second features Barkley telling viewers his new line of shoes won't make you dunk or rebound like him, they'll only make you have shoes like him.